EAST LANSING, Mich. — After Harlon Barnett departed for Tallahassee to assume defensive coordinator duties at Florida State, Michigan State has hired Paul Haynes as its new defensive backs coach, head coach Mark Dantonio said while speaking at a Michigan high school coaches’ association clinic.

Haynes spent the last four years at Kent State–his alma mater–as its head coach where the Golden Flashes went just 14-45 with Haynes at the helm. Haynes was dismissed by Kent State and after rumors surfaced of him being hired onto Matt Campbell’s staff at Iowa State, he decided to join Dantonio in East Lansing. 

Much of Haynes’ coaching stints have been spent coaching defensive backs, including coaching defensive backs for Louisville for one year under former MSU head coach John L. Smith. When Smith was named the MSU head coach in 2003, Haynes moved with him and spent one season coaching the defensive backs in East Lansing.

Haynes also served as DB’s coach for five seasons at Ohio State under Jim Tressel and in 2011 was the Buckeyes’ co-defensive coordinator under interim head coach Luke Fickell. Dantonio said that Mike Tressel will now assume sole defensive coordinator duties and that freshman Lashawn Paulino-Bell will transfer out of the program. Paulino-Bell, a Tamaric, Fla. native, did not appear in a single game this season for the Spartans.

Haynes’ hiring gives Dantonio an eighth member on his coaching staff. With the NCAA recently allowing a tenth assistant to be hired, Dantonio hopes to have his remaining two vacancies filled by mid-next week.